Tris & Izzie (11 page)

W
hen I woke up, I was still in the cafeteria, my face plastered to the table with drool. Not the most flattering pose to be caught in by your boyfriend. But after living through the humiliation of Mel's truth serum, it didn't seem to matter much.

“Hi,” I said, sitting up and rubbing my face.

“Hi.” Mark looked almost as bad as I felt, his face drawn and his eyes bright with strain.

What do you say to the boyfriend you just admitted you didn't burn for, when your best friend did? It was awkward.

“Where's Branna?”

Mark pointed to her. She was down at the end of the table, snoring.

I looked around the cafeteria. The food area had been closed up, and the tables and floor had been cleaned. I glanced up at the clock. “How did you get them to let us stay in here?” We were almost an hour late for class. Not that I really cared at the moment.

“I told them you two had been throwing up and you probably both had food poisoning,” said Mark. “And if they wanted to make sure the school didn't get sued, they should leave you alone to recover.”

“You didn't.” Mark, the guy I thought was steady and normal? The one who would never lie?

“I did,” he said with a hint of a smile.

I was starting to like him even more than I had before. Not that it changed the way I felt about Tristan. The love philtre was too strong.

“You didn't think I had enough imagination to pull that off, did you?” said Mark.

I shrugged.

“Nice to know that we can still surprise each other after all this time.” Mark's voice was flat, and I knew it was over between us. I should have broken up with him days ago. I kept telling myself that I could reverse the love philtre, but I shouldn't have made Mark wait. I should have let him go free. To Branna.

And then there were all the things I had done wrong with her. My best friend, and I hadn't guessed the truth about her feelings? She was right: there was something selfish in my blindness. I kept holding on to Mark because he was familiar, instead of going for Tristan, who was dazzling and dangerous—and my destiny.

I was still scared about that.

“I'm going to be really happy for you two,” I said. “In a few days. I swear.” My voice was shaky, but I wanted to try to redeem myself in his eyes.

Whatever Branna had done to me today, I had done worse to her over the past year.

“Yeah, well, I'm not sure that's going to work as well for me with you and Tristan. You've only known him a few days. How can you know—already?” Mark asked.

In the end, it didn't matter that it was because of a love philtre. My feelings were what they were, and there was no getting away from them. I wasn't going to excuse myself with magic.

“You are a great guy,” I said.

“That's what girls always say when they're about to break up with someone,” said Mark.

I made a face. “Like you've had that happen to you so often.”

“I've heard guys tell me about it plenty.”

That I believed.

“Should I call him or something?” asked Mark. “Tell him you're his. Or he's yours?”

“Um. I have to talk to him myself, I guess.” I didn't know what I was going to say to Tristan. The last time I'd seen him, I'd slapped him and told him he was a liar. I'd made him leave my house, even though he'd just been discharged from the hospital and had nowhere to go. The love philtre had made me love him, but apparently, it didn't make me treat him very well.

“You do that.”

“You're okay with it? Just like that?” I asked.

“Okay with you breaking up with me? Okay with Tristan stealing my girlfriend? I'm not okay with it, Izzie, but there's nothing I can do about it, is there?”

I looked into his eyes. I loved his dark eyes. But I loved Tristan more. “No,” I said. “No more than I can do anything about you and Branna.”

Mark looked at her, and I could see the way he tensed, ready to go to her if she woke up. Yeah, it was over between us, on both sides.

“We're still friends, right?” Mark asked gently.

“Of course. Good friends,” I said. Even if I was an idiot who hadn't seen the truth.

“You and Branna won't hate each other after this, will you?”

“Well, I can't speak for Branna, but I don't hate her.”

Mark sighed. “It's not like she's been trying to break us up all this time.”

“No. She waited until she couldn't wait anymore. She was trying to be loyal, I guess.” For over a year.

“When do you think she'll wake up?” asked Mark.

I checked my watch. It had been over an hour since lunch ended. “I don't know. Did she take more than the one drop I saw?” I stood up a little dizzily and went over to shake her shoulder.

She opened her eyes, but they seemed glassy. “You,” she said, and then her speech went slurry and I didn't catch the rest. She fell asleep again.

I shook her again. “Branna, wake up. Come on.”

She mumbled something.

I looked at Mark. “Can you come over here and help me?”

“I don't know anything about magic,” he said. “What am I supposed to do? I don't want to hurt her.”

He had been through a lot in the last day. Not only had he found out in the worst possible way that his girlfriend was in love with someone else, but he had found out that Branna loved him, and that magic was real, all at once.

“Come and kiss her,” I said. Hey, it worked in the fairy tales.

Mark blushed.

I realized that Branna probably wasn't the only one who had hidden feelings for the past few months. All this time, I had thought he was just being nice, letting her come with us everywhere. And maybe that was what Mark had thought he was doing, too, at first. When it had changed, I could only guess.

If you knew exactly who you were going to fall in love with before it happened, then everything would be a lot easier. But you didn't get to plan things like that beforehand. You just had to scramble and figure things out once they happened.

“Come on, don't be shy,” I said, beckoning Mark.

He came close to me, and I didn't think about how good he smelled or how my knees felt weak when he was around. I had never felt like that about him. I'd liked kissing him. I'd liked being next to him. But it had been nothing like with Tristan.

“I don't know. What if she doesn't want me to kiss her? It's not like we've ever talked about this. And I wouldn't want to be accused of—”

“Mark, she said she burned for you. I think we can safely assume that a kiss from you would be welcome.”

“She seems drunk. You're not supposed to kiss a girl if she's drunk and not in her full senses,” said Mark.

“You're kissing her to help her come back to her full senses. Just a light kiss, nothing sexy about it. Pretend you're kissing your mom.”

“On the cheek?” said Mark.

I sighed. “Like kissing a friend, then. On the lips.”

Mark came closer. All elbows and knees, he seemed a lot taller and clumsier now than he'd ever seemed on the basket-ball court or in school.

Despite her size, Branna looked vulnerable.

Mark kissed her briefly and then I could see her start to kiss him back, even with her eyes closed. “M-Mark,” she said softly.

Then she opened her eyes, pulled away from Mark, and gave a little shriek.

Mark put his hands up. “Hey, it wasn't my idea. Izzie made me do it. I swear, I wasn't going to touch you.”

Branna's face fell.

Mark, you idiot, I thought. That was not what she wanted to hear.

“Well, thanks but no, thanks,” Branna said to me.

At least she was awake now. She stood up, smoothed her hair off her cheek, and looked around. “Where is everyone?”

“Back in class,” I said, “which is probably where we should be. Except I think you and Mark have some things to work out. Mark, why don't you go first?”

“Um, uh.” Mark ducked his head like he was nine years old and giving valentines to girls in third grade.

“You have no right to tell him what to do, Izzie,” said Branna. “I think he can make his own decision, and if he still chooses you, well, then, no one can say he did it blindly. You are the pretty one. Even if—” She stopped herself.

“You're beautiful, Branna,” said Mark in a hushed tone. “I don't know why you never see yourself that way. I know I do.”

“Oh? And when did this happen?” She sounded angry, but her eyes were glittering.

“I always knew you were beautiful. I just thought you weren't interested.”

“You were dating my best friend,” said Branna. Her voice was softer now.

“Yeah, she's easier to talk to. She doesn't scare me,” Mark admitted.

Branna scared Mark? Oh! Just like Tristan scared me.

“Look, are you two going to throw everything away, or are you going to get it together?” I asked. I might as well have asked the same thing about me and Tristan. I wished he was here right then. But I was just going to have to go and get him, bring him back, and admit the truth about how I felt for him.

Branna blinked up at Mark. He leaned closer to her. She stood a little taller. He leaned in a little more.

It was just like that, a half inch at a time. Then they kissed again. For real this time.

My boyfriend and my best friend.

I clapped.

Branna looked at me, then ducked her head. “You must be really mad at me. About that truth serum. And Mel and everything,” she said.

“I hate you,” I said firmly.

Mark put a protective arm around her.

“But I also love you,” I added.

I might have had to explain more, but the whole cafeteria started to shake.

“Earthquake,” said Mark. He pulled Branna under one of the tables against the wall. Then he noticed me still standing in the middle of the room.

And he came to get me.

After everything I'd done to him, he pulled me toward Branna.

He didn't tuck himself around me when we got to the wall, though. He put an arm up to shield me from any large falling pieces of plaster or wood. But the rest of his body was reserved for Branna, who really could have protected herself just fine.

She didn't object, however. In fact, she looked pretty pleased with the position of Mark's body around hers.

The cafeteria kept shaking, worse and worse.

“Hold on,” said Mark. “It should be over soon. Earth-quakes don't last long.”

I tried to think about the last time we'd had an earthquake. But we had never had an earthquake. Tintagel was in the middle of the country, to the north, and if we worried about any natural disaster, it was tornadoes, not earthquakes.

I heard something outside—a booming like the rumbling of a train or construction equipment.

Or the roar of a very large, very magical creature.

I saw something pass by the window of the cafeteria. It looked like an arm with a hand the size of a huge wrecking ball. Then there was more shaking as the arm moved away.

“Uh, Mark, Branna,” I said. “I think there's a problem.”

“There's an earthquake!” said Branna. “Of course there's a problem.”

I pointed at the window, where a giant face peered closer and closer to the glass. The eye was the size of a big-screen television set. The nose was like a dripping, warty yellow car. The mouth was as wide as a wave on the ocean, and it was shouting into the window: “Come out, come out, Magic. Come out and fight!”

Magic. The slurg had called me that. The slurg, who had been sent by Gurmun, the serpent, to find me.

All these years, Mom had tried to keep me from using my magic, to protect me from the serpent and his servants.

And now here was another one.

A giant one.

T
he school shook again and then the giant moved away, out of sight from the window.

I was breathing heavily, thinking that this time Tristan was not here with his sword to save me.

“What is that thing?” asked Branna.

“I don't know,” said Mark. “Did it say something about magic?”

“Is the earthquake over?” asked Branna. She rose to her feet. Mark kept an arm around her as he stood, too, just in case.

I had a bad feeling about this.

“Branna, Mark. I think that was a giant.”

“A giant? Are you sure those are real?” said Mark.

“Well, what's your explanation?” I asked. Then I added sarcastically, “You think an earthquake has a face and speaks?”

But Mark didn't have a chance to answer, because a stone the size of a school bus suddenly crashed through the roof of the cafeteria. It was like an explosion, so loud that my ears screamed with pain.

When I looked up again, the stone was in the middle of the cafeteria, about ten yards from where I stood. All I could think, staring at the thing, was
Good aim
.

There was debris everywhere and rising dust that made it hard to see the blue sky outside, even though the sun was shining bright enough to make me blink. At least four tables had been cracked in the middle, and the linoleum floor was ruined.

The principal was not going to like this. I wondered if someone would try to blame me and Mark and Branna. But how could any of us have thrown a rock that size? It would have taken a crane to lift it, let alone throw it.

The shaking started again. I could hear people in the school around us screaming and running outside. Not a good plan, since the giant was out there. But staying inside didn't seem like a great plan, either. I didn't
have
a great plan.

“We have to get out there,” I said. I couldn't let hundreds of helpless high-school students face an angry giant—not when he had come after me and my magic.

“You think we can get away from it?” asked Mark.

“No,” I said, looking him in the eye. “I don't think I can. And I don't want to.”

If the giant started going around the rest of the town to find me, that would just mean more buildings destroyed, more people hurt. And it would be my fault. If only I had taken my mom's invincibility potion when I'd had the chance … But I couldn't think about that.

We scrambled out through the cafeteria door. The frame was bent from the roof cave-in, but Mark managed to kick it out enough that we could squeeze through, though Mark and Branna had to pull and push each other. It was easier for me, because I was so small.

“Please tell me you've got your own magic,” said Mark, looking out the big front doors of the school, toward the flagpole. Luckily, it seemed everyone else had run out the back door. I couldn't see anyone out front.

“I'm supposed to,” I said, a little distracted.

I wondered when the police would be arriving, and what they would do when they saw a giant, which couldn't possibly exist. How much work was this going to create for my mother, who would have to erase the traces of magic? Was that even possible? Was there such a thing as an amnesia potion, and could she use it on everyone in town? Or did keeping magic a secret even matter anymore? After all, the secrecy had been to keep everyone safe from creatures like this giant. Now none of us was safe.

“So, what is your magic, anyway?” asked Mark.

“Elemental,” I muttered.

“So that's, what, with the periodic table or something?” asked Mark.

“No. Not those elements. Earth, fire, water, air—the four elements,” I said.

“Oh, good,” said Mark.

Sure I had elemental magic, but I had no idea how to use it against a giant or anything else. I took a breath, straightened my shoulders, and stepped forward. I guessed it was time to learn.

“I don't think it's a good idea for you to go out there,” said Mark.

“Well, I know it's not a good idea to go out there,” I said. “But it's a worse idea to stay in here.”

The giant was stomping around the parking lot, where the slurg had died. There were cars thrown everywhere like toys, except that when you throw toy cars, they don't break. They don't get pulverized by giant fists that look like they're crushing soda-pop cans.

The asphalt in the parking lot was getting ripped up, too. The giant was so heavy that his enormous feet broke through the surface. He bent over and yanked pieces of asphalt out and threw them or kicked them around. He seemed pretty mad that I hadn't gone outside yet.

I looked up the street, and I could see a couple of cars that had stopped where they were, without pulling over. Their drivers had gotten out and were fleeing in the other direction.

“I'll go,” said Mark. “I'll fight it.”

Before I could argue, Branna was suddenly wrapped around his chest. “No!” she said. “It will kill you.”

She was right. Mark didn't have magic. Sending him out there was the same as handing down a death sentence, and even if I had been mad at him and Branna, no one deserved that.

“I can't just let Izzie go out there and face it alone,” said Mark.

We watched the giant, which was the ugliest thing I had ever seen. I always thought giants would look like regular humans, just bigger. You know, twenty feet tall or something.

But this giant was nothing like a human. His head was about half as big as the rest of his body, which should have made him unbalanced but instead made him able to pick up things and chew them. Like the oak that had been planted the year the school opened, forty years ago. We'd had a boring assembly about it in September celebrating the anniversary. It had been a big deal, and the house-and-garden store had planted forty saplings around the school for free.

Those saplings were nowhere to be seen. There was nothing green left outside. The giant was chomping every-thing in sight. He spat plenty, too. Like a wood chipper or a kid with watermelon seeds in his mouth. The missiles came through the front window of the school.

“The pit!” I shouted.

We all jumped into it, and it saved our lives. The stinky, smelly pit! I wanted to kiss the whorled black-and-gray carpet, but I didn't. I was saving my kisses for Tristan. In case I ever saw him again.

The giant had yellowish skin, and his eyes were dark purple with red centers that glowed like the eyes of demons in a stupid horror show. He had claws on the ends of his toes and fingers, and spikes growing out of his neck and all the way down his arms and legs. He was also naked, which was why I could tell that he was a he and not a she.

Let me tell you, a naked male giant is not pretty.

“Izzie, if you have magic, now is the time to use it,” said Branna.

“I know.” But how?

I could hear sirens in the distance now, coming closer. But I didn't see any ambulances or police cars yet. I hoped they were on their way.

“Try something. Something small,” she said.

I don't know how long it would have taken for me and Branna to trust each other again in ordinary circumstances, though I think it would have happened eventually, because deep down, we were still friends. But the giant emergency sped things along.

“Like what?” I said.

“I don't know,” said Branna, scowling at me. “You're the one who's lived with magic all her life. You figure it out.”

So maybe the giant hadn't fixed everything between us.

“What about me?” said Mark. “You could turn me into a giant, and I could go fight the other giant.”

“I don't think I can do that,” I said. But how did I know, really? Mom hadn't explained anything about my magic, except about spitting in her potions and that it was based on fire, water, air, and earth. But how to use those against a giant?

“Try something,” said Mark. “Anything.”

So I did. I remembered when Mom had asked me to think about Tristan's healing potion in the ambulance. She said I should think about him getting better. So I thought about Mark fighting the giant. I thought about the giant falling over and starting to burn. I thought about it so hard I could hear my ears pop.

Then I looked at Mark and realized that his hands were on fire. The popping sound had been the skin on his palms opening up.

“Stop it! Stop your stupid magic!” said Branna. “You're killing him?”

But I had no idea how to control my magic. I thought as hard as I could about water, and icebergs, and smoothies, and anything cold and wet that I had ever seen. I thought of ice-skating rinks, and falling snow, and hail, and mountain streams with ice-cold water in them.

“Good. That's enough,” said Mark, shivering. He had turned blue in the face, and there was a big icicle hanging off his nose. The whole school seemed colder, in fact.

“You're stealing all the heat from him,” said Branna. She pointed at me, and I realized I was so dry I could have started a forest fire, and there was a faint scent of burning around me.

I let go of the magic, fire and ice, and crumpled to the floor, my harsh breathing echoing in the huge, empty halls of the school.

I lay there, thinking about how I might have used magic a thousand times in my life without even knowing it. About the chances Mom took with me, sending me to a regular school every day, with hundreds of regular kids. How could she have done that? I was a walking time bomb.

And I still hadn't even really figured out how to do magic yet, hadn't figured out the extent of my powers. It was over-whelming. I felt as if I was flapping around like a chicken with its head cut off.

“It's okay,” said Mark. “I'm okay now.”

That was enough to make me shake myself back to sanity. I had to get control of myself and my magic. I had no time to freak out.

I looked up, and Mark seemed normal again. Or mostly normal. He wasn't dead. In fact, he was kissing Branna.

Mark looked … glowing. I remembered how Tristan had looked like that after he'd drunk the love philtre. I had thought it was a magical thing, but apparently not, because Branna hadn't done anything magical to make Mark fall in love with her.

I stood up and took a deep breath.

Now the giant outside could see me, and it seemed that the use of my magic had made him even angrier. He shook his fist at me. “You! Magic! Coward!” he shouted.

Then he threw another rock at the school.

This one landed right in front of me.

If it had landed even two inches closer, I would have been crushed.

Was the giant toying with me?

I thought for a moment about the serpent from what I had thought was my dream. I wished I knew more about the elemental magic my dad and I shared. I was fighting a giant, though, so the same tricks he had used with the serpent might not work. And besides, my father had died fighting the serpent.

Maybe the giant wasn't as strong as the serpent, but that didn't make me feel better. It only made me surer I never wanted to meet the serpent.

I saw a helicopter above us, and the giant turned toward it and grinned. I thought of how small the helicopter would be next to him, and hoped it wouldn't come closer. Even if the people in it had weapons, what good would a gun be against a giant?

“Mark. I have something I want you to do,” I said urgently.

“What is it?”

“I want you to go get Tristan. Find him. He should be close by.” Tristan had said he would protect me. “Tell him about the giant. Send him to help me.” His sword would be a useful thing to have here, though I had no idea if Tristan would come in time. Or if he would come at all.

“Where does he live? Do you know his uncle's address?” said Mark.

I didn't try to explain to him that there was no uncle or that Tristan hadn't come from Parmenie. “Go look for him around town, in underpasses and stuff. He's not at home right now.”

“He ran away?” asked Mark.

“Yeah,” I said. That was the easy way of explaining it.

“Okay. I'm gone. What are you going to do?”

“I'm going to hold off the giant as long as I can.” I tried to be brave, but my voice wavered on the last word.

“Branna, come on,” said Mark.

“No,” she said.

“What? You can't stay here. You don't have magic.”

I turned around. Branna's jaw was set. I had seen that look before. “I can help Izzie,” she said.

“I'm not going if you don't go,” said Mark. “I can't.” He looked at me, beseeching.

“Branna—” I said.

“Don't. You wouldn't let Mark tell you what to do. Why should I let him tell me what to do? He should go get Tristan, but I'm going to stay with you.”

“You could get killed,” said Mark.

“So could Izzie.”

“But—”

“I'm her best friend.” That seemed to be the end of the discussion.

Mark took a breath. “Promise me you won't do anything stupid,” he said softly.

“I don't want to die,” said Branna. “I have every reason to live—now.”

Mark nodded, then turned to me. “You won't do anything stupid, either, will you?”

“Promise me you'll bring Tristan back,” I said, eyeing the helicopter as it came closer.

“Promise,” said Mark.

“Then go.”